It has been a scandalous month for international businesses. But while the coffee-drinking public in the UK has been boycotting Starbucks, Hewlett-Packard has been embroiled in an ongoing spat with a recently acquired software company.

HP’s acquisition of Autonomy caused an internal rift between the companies two CEOs and HP attempting to write off three-quarters of Autonomy’s value due to alleged misrepresentation of the latter’s accounts. Now, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the matter.

BP’s reputation took a dive after Deepwater Horizon. In the years since, it has clawed its way back into the lives of Americans and Brits with an effort culminating in its highly regarded sponsorship of the London Olympics.

On Friday, the U.S. courts approved the settlement BP has offered the Gulf Coast victims of the catastrophic oil spill. For BP, this is promising, as it allows the company to pay its settlement and avoid further litigation, but also avoid further media scrutiny.

Budget cuts have been implemented, a new cabinet has been elected and now, change in organisational management has been called for.

A seminar, held by Reform, an independent think tank, at Chatham House last month saw contributions from the government and from the government's COO, Stephen Kelly, and organisational management experts, AOMi. The 'Managing change in the public sector' conference delegates agreed that fiscal pressure will force the government to change its approach to operations management, and change it for the better.

In July, the PRCA and Pearson in Practice, alongside 50 employers in the PR industry launched an initiative to begin a PR apprenticeship scheme. The programme places young people interested in the PR industry who are not at university with agencies across the industry.

PRCA apprentices work simultaneously at securing qualifications and at on-the-job training. Three months on from the start of the programme, apprentice Josh Speers gives an update on the progress of the apprentices.

Christmas means mince pies, turkey and stuffing and countless other goodies. It also means everyone’s New Year’s resolution will be to ‘get fit’.

LighterLife, a weight loss company, has launched a new visual identity to attract customers while their resolutions are still hot. The So Creative-designed identity injects welcome humour into the LighterLife brand. Fifties-style pin-ups will not be out of place in the diet house’s new marketing push, overseen by Brothers and Sisters.

The public has spoken. Well, the Starbucks-sitting, latte-photo-taking public has spoken. The past few weeks have unleashed a PR maelstrom upon two major consumer-oriented companies. Both have attempted to respond to customer backlash quickly and directly.

Starbucks’ UK MD Kris Engskov distributed an explanatory statement in print and online to explain its resolution to the tax scandal that emerged earlier this month. Yesterday, Instagram’s decision to claim the right to sell users’ content and data has enraged its users. Today, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom released a statement clarifying the new terms and conditions, but avoided changing the company’s newly-adopted policy.

Engaging with a corporate audience has grown increasingly more complex and increasingly more important to the corporate and financial services industries. To honour the work of corporate communicators, the second-annual Corporate and Financial Awards recognise excellence in City communications.

The Corporate and Financial Awards is now open for entries for its 2013 programme. The awards provide an opportunity for staff, companies, agencies and beneficiaries alike, to see their efforts recognised and to celebrate excellence in all aspects of City communication.

Last week, an Oracle survey pointed to customer service as a linchpin for effective customer service and promotion of brand loyalty. Research published today by Brand Embassy shows that social media is identified as the most effective means of doing so.

The customer service apparatuses of 50 British and 50 Czech brands were examined. Facebook, the survey found, sees the best and quickest response by brands, with and 88% response rate – 11% higher than by email or online. Facebook also led to a faster turnover than to enquiries submitted via email or a company’s website.

A major UK ICT provider has rebranded its corporate identity to modernise its website and brand presence.

A bright and shiny new website spearheads the GCI rebrand, allowing visitors a more direct route to understanding GCI’s IT offering and services. The new branding was designed to reflect the company’s commitment to innovation and its customer-centric approach.

By now, it’s become conventional wisdom that Twitter is the new water cooler. It’s the place that those 'did you see what happened on...?' conversations take place.

In a rare acknowledgement of the changing times in the television industry, Nielsen, the US television rating company, has partnered with Twitter to create a social media analysis and measurement metric. The establishment of Twitter as the online water cooler in addition to the proliferation of second-screen viewing have made the need for a social media audience metric more relevant. The 2013 TV season will be the first to feature the new measurements.

It’s a big, airy room with a glass ceiling, wood floors, exposed brick and sleek tabletops. No, it’s not the Apple Store in Covent Garden, but the common area of Generator hostels’ Dublin outpost.

But in a landscape of hostels all seeking to be the newest and coolest of the bunch, it is may not be enough to simply paint the walls a funky colour. Generator is a challenger amongst the new crop of trendy, visually compelling hostels by integrating its overarching brand structure with the design of its physical locations.

It’s a new world out there. Gay marriage is legal (almost) in the UK, the pope is tweeting and the census says there are fewer religious people in Britain than there were 10 years ago. Standing in the face of all that is a bold redesign for the Diocese of London and the Bishop of London.

The 2011 census results, unveiled yesterday, revealed a 13% drop in people identifying as Christian. Amidst a growing number of British residents who do not have a religion, the Church of England must strengthen it’s appeal to young people. For that reason, in part, Belfast-based branding agency Paperjam has created a new visual identity for the Church of England’s presence in London. Alongside the rebranding, the Diocese and Bishop of London were formally separated into two unique brands.

Fact: Starbucks, Google and Amazon got slammed in the press for paying a nominal amount of corporate tax in Britain. Fact: customers boycotted Starbucks and lobbied the coffee giant to right their perceived wrongs. Fact: Starbucks issued a letter to customers stating it would voluntarily pay more tax. Fact: Google has likened it’s avoidance of corporate tax as just good capitalism and has refused to pay any unmandated taxes.

The facts that don’t add up for three of the world’s most beloved brands are how the ongoing tax scandal has impacted each company’s reputation. Starbucks, which has been all but forced to publicly apologise, has conceded an additional £10 million. Google has faced virtually no opposition in the public and Amazon has skated by under the radar.

Britain has gone baking crazy. Cupcake shops abound and the Great British Bake Off draws a 25% audience share. For all the amateur bakers replicating those tasty treats at home, however, there’s a new girl in town.

Betty Crocker, a prominent American baking brand, is getting a makeover at the age of 90 ahead of a push to break into the UK market. The rebrand features a modern-retro vibe complete with new packaging and an interactive, integrated website.

Maths can be a hard sell. Especially to marketers who, according to research, have relied more on their instincts and institutional precedent than data and algorithms. That lack of quantitative input in research has led to an annual loss of £2.5 billion.

Analytics have become more important of late in marketing because of the digital boom. Campaigns are now integrated across numerous digital and physical channels making marketing analytics increasingly important to understanding a campaign’s effectiveness and efficiency.

The Tree Council is barking up a new tree with a campaign designed by Marc & Anna.

The charity plants trees in playgrounds and public spaces and now, will be planting some in the mailboxes of supporters. The new campaign features roll-up posters designed to look like bark on one side with a tree nametag closure.

Parliament, newspapers, industry leaders and the nation are in disagreement about the direction to be pursued following the Leveson Inquiry’s recommendations. Newspaper editors, who met last week, supported Lord Justice Leveson’s suggestion to organise a new, independent regulatory body. Parliamentary leaders and the prime minister remain in debate about the extent to which the body will be backed by legislation.

Today, the PRCA issued a statement covering its stance on the Leveson Inquiry’s results. Director-general Francis Ingham’s statement follows a survey of 110 PRCA members. Members favoured either a non-statutory newspaper ombudsman or a strengthened Press Complaints Commission rather than implement a statutory base on an independent regulator. Both the PRCA and the CIPR support a non-statutory regulation of the press in an effort to protect the freedom of the press and the ability of the public relations industry to act freely.

Christmas is nearly upon us and with it, the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Business is picking up, but behind the scenes, things may not be so rosy for telecoms and retail companies.

Customer service is lacking in most major consumer industries. This, according to research undertaken by Oracle leads to a decrease in brand loyalty.

What do a lighthouse, a cow and financial services have in common? The EMCAS rebrand, designed by The Partners.

EMCAS, a Devon-based claims management company has unveiled a new identity to emphasise its ethical approach to claims management. The Partners designed Devon-inspired branding evocative of protesting placards for use in EMCAS’ communications materials.

It’s a land where machines know what people need and want, where the products a customer researches are automatically delivered to her mailbox, where she can reach the company that made that product across the globe without leaving her home, a land of smart television and constant information. No, it’s not the future (or the Matrix), it’s the digital communications landscape in 2013.

Hotwire PR and 33 Digital published the fourth annual Digital Trends Report today which outlines the trends and challenges facing the communications industry in the new year. The report points to trends continuing from the present — increasing interconnectivity and engagement is a big one — but also looks at the influx of new census data in a radically different world than 2002 and the rise of ever-smarter inanimate objects.